Street

Terrific explanation of a time many have forgotten, when Wall Street nearly collapsed not from scandal but from hubris, incompetence, and just plain sloppiness. Remember when the markets were closed on Wednesdays so firms could process their paperwork? How about Ross Perots adventure to conquer the street? Me neither. Unless you lived it, you'll never get closer to knowing how many times the whole ballgame nearly came undone.

Second Empire Paris proclaimed itself Europe's first modern city, extensively rebuilt by the autocratic remodeling of Napoleon III. Londoners, however, had to achieve the monumental changes of the middle of the nineteenth century in bits and pieces by cooperation with various authorities rather than an imposition by a dictator. Certainly, the modernization of London in the mid-nineteenth century produced a city that was greatly different form Paris, according to _Victorian Babylon: People, Streets, and Images in 19th Century London_ (Yale University Press) by Lynda Nead. Nead is a professor of art history, and her well-illustrated book explains the changes in the city and the society from around 1850 to 1880. "London's municipal government emerged out of a fog of local hostility and resistance," Nead writes.

Nead details the changes that came to the city because of its huge sewer system, or the installation of gas lighting. For instance, gas made night shopping and strolling possible, and enabled men and women to dance, drink, and generally be naughty at the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens. The moralists of the time fought against Cremorne's various licenses, and eventually it went under, but not before inspiring Whistler's famous _Nocturne in Black and Gold_ which led to his lawsuit against Ruskin. The moralists were in further quandary over Holywell Street, the history of which is the most engaging part of the book. It was the home of pornographers who put their wares in the windows, hazarding youth and especially (according to the view of the time) women, who loved bright colors. Holywell was especially cited in debate over the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, and police closed down some of the businesses and seized some of their goods, but it seems that such efforts are never very effective. The street soldiered on in its popular and sinful way until the very end of Victoria's reign, when it was finally done in by razing to make way for the new Kingsway thoroughfare. Parliament never did solve the problem of defining what is obscene; those who want to censor the Internet have the same problem today.

Nead has written a book about how people affect the city environment and vice versa. It is extremely well illustrated, with quality reproductions of engravings, oils, and sheet music covers, producing a good-looking book whose illustrations and text reinforce each other with style.

John Thomson's photographs come alive in this reprint of his book Street Life in London, originally published in 1877. While the pictures present a striking view of the city's inhabitants, it is the commentary by Thomson and Adolphe Smith that draws you inside the lives of those Londoners who made their living on the streets. From cabmen to shoe-blacks, from ginger-beer makers to chimney sweeps, the reader is swept along from one fascinating career to another. However, while the past may be fascinating to you and I, to the people forever captured by the camera it was a daily battle just to get by. Thomson and Smith have eloquently combined words and photographs to create a stark and haunting view of the day-to-day existence of those Londoners trapped by birth at the bottom of the Victorian social ladder. The book is a stunning achievement, a piece of the past exposed. It fills a void and is a welcome complement to other books on the Victorian era.

My grandaughter, Meredith, is 2 years old and this is her absolute favorite book. We have read it so much that she can recite most of it. She lost her first copy and was so upset. I was so glad to find her a new one at amazon.com.

This book is written with sensitivity and insight. It is a book that members of every generation will appreciate as the characters come to life with their stories.

Bringing to life in a novel the characters and situations in a screenplay is not always easy and not always done well. In this case, the job is flawless and the result breathtakingly realistic and vivid.

Working From Oliver Stone and Stanley Weiser's screenplay, the author brings the protagonist to life with skill not often seen in novels today. The action is fast paces but clear and comprehensible throughout. Even the contrived and larger than life aspects of the characters is recounted in such a way as to keep the pages turning and the reader engrossed.

Part morality play part commentary on the 1980's, Wall Street is a cover to cover read that doesn't slow down or let up. Intriguing and interested throughout, this is one movie on paper you won't put down and won't regret going to the trouble to find.

A great read that will not take very long and will entertain and enlighten, even if you have already seen the movie.

This book is so good that it should be legally required reading before a trader is permitted to conduct his/her speculations.

Originally published in 1921, in its short, easy to read, 144 pages, it convincingly covers market manipulation, stocks, bonds, public speculation, short selling, hedging, insiders, greed, trading rules and trading psychology.

Yes, 98% of this book is still highly relevant today. It fits the markets of 2002 better than most of the bubble era trading and investing books.

Many of the 1921 manipulations and scams are now illegal, but as we've learned in 2001 and 2001, that doesn't mean they no longer exist.

This little gem captures the height of bull market humor in the 1980s, with a little bit of history thrown in. Jokes off the headlines passed through the phone web of the international financial world insult everything from the political bruhahas of Gary Hart to the Challenger accident, no holds barred. At the same time, Buffy Bluechip explains her sleuthlike methods for finding the jokes, from combing Wall Street waterholes to setting up moles on trading desks. What runs faster than a chicken in Ethopia? The ruthless minds and mouths of Wall Street traders who love a good tasteless joke!

A neat collection of short stories that appeared in McClure's Magazine around 1900. Some characters reappear in different stories, but the stories are each self-contained. This is the earliest work in which I have found the short-selling quote: "He who sells what isn't his'n, Must buy it back or go to pris'n (page 173)." If you want to feel the brass Ticky-ticky-ticky-tick of the ticker then read this book. The first story "The Lady and Her Bonds" appears to have been the inspiration for Lefevre's novel "Sampson Rosk of Wall Street." If you liked "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," you will love this book. Don't be dissuaded by the "out of print" label probably attached to this work - it cn still be found and is worth the search.

Pecora, Ferdinand. Wall Street Under Oath. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1936.
An insider's look at the "Pecora Investigation" of stock market operations during the 1920s, as written by the Counsel to the United States Committee on Banking and Currency. Pecora's comprehensive investigation, which subpoenaed some of the most prominent financiers of the age and asked them to explain how they made their fortunes, led to the enactment of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.